Briar Rose
by Little Miss Molly
Summary: Daddy, will you tell us the story again? The Sleeping Beauty one you always tell, about the pharaoh... [OneShot] [Sortof belated tribute to end of YuGiOh]


**Title:** Briar Rose  
**Author:** Baka Neko Molly-chan  
**Disclaimer:** Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I don't know who Sleeping Beauty belongs to, but it's not me. End of story.  
**Summary:** "Daddy, will you tell us the story again? The Sleeping Beauty one you always tell, about the pharaoh..."  
**Rating:** G  
**Notes:**  
Inspired largely by the book "Briar Rose" by Jane Yolen. A must-read...seriously, as far as I am concerned, if you have not read that book, you are living in sin. o-o  
Written in Science class. Oy vey.

* * *

"Daddy, can you tell us the story again?" 

Yuugi Mutou glanced up from the magazine he was reading, peering over the pages at the faces before him; his two young daughters, Shinju and Mana, and their friend, Ryuu, all gazed intently back at him. He grinned.

"Whatever do you mean?" He asked, setting the magazine down to direct his full attention to the eager children gathered before him. "I have stories to tell, indeed; but which one?" Shinju rolled her eyes, much too mature for a nine-year-old.

"The one you always tell, of course! You know," she lowered her voice, glancing at her friend and her sister in turn. "The Sleeping Beauty one?" _That_ certainly caught Ryuu's attention.

"Sleeping Beauty!" She cried, gazing at Yuugi in absolute wonder. "I love Sleeping Beauty!" Ryuu loved all fairy tales. Yuugi sighed, seeing there was no escaping the inevitable outcome. Not that he particularly minded, of course; still, he feigned a look of resignation, sighed deeply, and nodded.

At once all three girls scrambled into the first chairs they could find, nearly bobbing out of their skin with anticipation and excitement. The sight brought a smile to Yuugi's face. "Let's see..." He leaned back slightly, allowing his violet eyes to drift toward the ceiling. "Sleeping Beauty...

"Once upon a time, ages and ages ago, when Gods walked the earth, and pyramids stood stretching tall toward the sky, there lived a mighty pharaoh, who greatly desired a son."

"Mr. Mutou, you're telling it wrong." Ryuu had broken in, the beginnings of a scowl upon her young face. "The king wants a _daughter_, not a son!" Her interruption was met with a sharp whack on the ear, delivered by a glowering Shinju.

"This is how Daddy tells it!" She snapped, glaring as Ryuu rubbed her abused ear; with a last resenting look, the girl back down. Shinju beamed at her father. "Don't stop, Daddy!" Yuugi ruffled his eldest daughter's hair affectionately, slipping back into the tale without missing a beat.

"Now, like I was saying," He continued. "The pharaoh wanted a son, more then anything else in the land. And finally, one day, his beloved queen became pregnant; soon after, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. They named him..." He trailed off expectantly. Catching on, Shinju and Mana chorus the name together.

"Atem!"

"Indeed, that was his name: Atem.

"The pharaoh was overjoyed, and he presented his son to the kingdom as his heir, the one who was to take up rule after his death. Everyone in Egypt gathered there to gaze upon this beautiful baby. Everyone...except one.

"The pharaoh's brother, a priest of the palace, deeply resented Atem's existence; for you see, the boy's birth marked true that his own son would never rule Egypt. Such was his resentment that it grew within him, taking on a life of it's own. Consumed by this darkness, the priest cast a wicked spell." Yuugi's eyes shifted pointedly to Mana. "And what was this spell he cast?"

"'To set my own son on the throne,'" Mana recited, beaming at the honor of being chosen. "'I curse this child; on the eve of his seventeenth year, the prince will die, his body lost for all time within the straining peak of the mightiest pyramid, his soul forever entrapped in the shadows within.'" Once more she fell silent, and Yuugi picked up the story.

"So Atem grew to be happy and healthy, and when his father at long last passed away, he took up the throne. From there he rules Egypt with a firm but kind hand. Unfortunately, with this power came a dark, terrible secret.

"During his rule, Atem's father had played a part in the resurrection of a chaotic power; one which had been unleashed with the slaughtering of a child's innocence. Atem, upon discovering this evil, fought against it; and in the end, after a fierce struggle of heartache and sorrow, of pain and destruction, he _won_.

"But alas!" Yuugi accentuated the proclamation with a dramatic sweep of his hand. "The darkness was beaten, but at a terrible price. Atem had won the battle, but lost much, much more. For as he stood gazing out upon the wreckage, the wicked priest's curse, cast upon the day of his birth, began to take its hold. Slowly, the boy pharaoh's body was scattered to the sands, and his spirit was cast into an eternal slumber. There he lay, locked within a cold stone empire of mazes and traps, ever-changing, ever-ensnaring. A great barrier of pure gold surrounded it, sealing away any who might dare to trespass. And for thousands of years, there he law, doomed to slumber for the rest of eternity.

"Until one day, long ago but not an age past, there was a young boy."

"The prince?!" Ryuu, sounding positively horrified, was once more unable to contain herself. "But he isn't a young boy; he's tall and handsome! And besides, Sleeping Beauty's the prince now! A prince needs a _princess_!" Then she could say no more as Shinju, finally at the end of her tether, threw herself on her friend, and Sleeping Beauty was paused momentarily as Yuugi's priorities shifted to separating the two.

"If the two of you don't cease this behavior, I won't be finishing the story anytime soon!" He scolded a short time later, holding each girl away from the other. "So are you going to continue this childish bantering, or are you both going to make up and listen?"

Somewhat reluctantly, Shinju and Ryuu shook hands and returned to their respective seats.

"As I was saying before," Yuugi continued, "There was a young boy, who was very, very alone.

"I'm sure you know someone like that; someone who just doesn't fit in, no matter how hard he tries to, for whatever reason. That was the case with this child. His closest friends were the games and puzzles sold in his family shop. It was amongst them he would spend his days, toying and tinkering; day, after day, after day. Until one night, his life was forever changed."

"He found Sleeping Beauty!" The girls cried in unison.

"As he sat alone in his room, late at night, tinkering as he usually did, he heard a voice call him. A voice that spoke words he could not understand; but soon after they graced his ears, the boy drifted into slumber. And where should he wake, but in the very prison, in which the slumbering prince lay, body cold with time. At his feet lay the scattered pieces of his soul.

"The boy was confused, but the sight of the broken soul comforted him, with the familiarity of a puzzle. At once he set about restoring it, making it whole once more. And no sooner had he let the final piece slide into place then the life of the pharaoh was restored, and at once his eyes flew open, startled to waken after so many ages spent in sleep. And as the two met eyes for the first time, they knew in their hearts they had found a kindred. That neither would want for anything as long as they had each other." Here Yuugi's expression became very sad, almost longing, making him look abruptly like the old man he was growing into. His voice carried a rush of sorrow as he spoke the final words.

"The end."

There was silence as the story came to a close; even Ryuu was stricken dumb. It was several minutes before at last Mana, the first to break the spell, wriggled down from her chair and trotted over to Yuugi, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Thank you, Daddy." She whispered, planting a wet, sloppy kiss on his cheek. Her voice broke the spell, and the other two soon hopped down from their seats as well.

"Someday, I want to learn to tell the story." Shinju declared. "Will you teach it to me?" When she received a nod in reply from her father, Shinju could only grin.

"I still say you told it wrong." Ryuu grumbled one final time before Shinju and Mana shuffled her off with them to their bedroom, and any further mutterings dissolved into giggles.

Alone at last, Yuugi rose from his chair, crossing to the old bureau set against the opposite wall. His daughters had always been forbidden from opening the top drawer, and though they had hampered him and Anzu many a time over was was inside, neither of their parents ever revealed the contents of that drawer. Now steadily Yuugi grasped the handle, cold from lack of touch, and pulled, the wood groaning as the drawer slid out, revealing his oldest, greatest, most beloved treasure. The one he could never give up.

"And they lived happily ever after." He whispered, removing the gold box, with it's ornate designs decorating the sides, and clutching it to his chest. "Until the end of their days." With uttermost care he replaced the box back into its resting place, relishing in the noise of many pieces of metal clanging about within. There was no use dwelling in the past, such things could only lead to further heartache; but small visits were all right. Visits like these, whether in acknowledgement of the existence of a memorial...or through a fanciful fairy tale.

The Millennium Puzzle safely back in its keeping place, Yuugi Mutou left the room.


End file.
